Treat Parkinson’s Stooped Posture with Ball-Assisted Scapular Glides

People with Parkinson’s often struggle with stooped posture and shoulder pain. It may seem like these are two different problems, but your shoulder pain may be just a symptom of dysfunction of the upper back and shoulder blade relationship. If this dysfunction is ignored for too long, it can result in a rotator cuff tear.

The muscles of the upper back, along with the shoulder blade action, are very important to posture and the stabilization of the shoulder. Your shoulder blades should “glide and float” on your rib cage. If you have a stooped posture, your shoulder blades can’t sit or glide normally on the ribs. Poor posture associated with Parkinson’s disease often creates tight chest muscles and weak back muscles, which affects this delicate balance.

Watch this video to find out how you can treat Parkinson’s stooped posture with ball-assisted scapular glides:

This Parkinson’s shoulder exercise activates your upper back muscles and will help you improve your posture and relieve your shoulder pain.

• Start standing (or sitting) up straight with your best posture. Hold the ball up against your chest with your elbow and wrist at the same level as your shoulder.

• Start hinging the elbow back without shrugging the shoulders.

• Stop at about 30 degrees and hold for a moment, then continue by “gliding” your shoulder blade toward your spine. Do not squeeze your shoulder blade. Hold for a count of five.

• Return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times and switch arms.
• Do this daily!

Note: Always stop the exercise if it increases your pain. You can adjust the exercise by decreasing your range of motion or do fewer reps to start. Keep exercises as pain-free as possible. Build up to 10 repetitions on each side daily.

This is just one of many exercises to help your posture and shoulder pain. Click here to check out last week’s exercise for posture. You can also search through hundreds of exercise videos on my website. Go to rebelfitclub.com, click on “Blog” in the upper-right corner, and then enter a search term like “shoulder exercise.”

 Stay Hopeful and Go Forth and Conquer!   

💜 Coach Kimberly